If Jesus is King then all these difference fade in importance, don’t they? I am blessed to have you join me and many others to pray for unity and reconciliation in the church. My sense is that if the church doesn’t do the work of reconciliation under Jesus now, then we will have a much harder work to do later.

We invite you to pray and reflect, journal and respond to this post. We will be happy to have you share what you hear and think and how you are praying with each other. We recognize and understand that race can be a challenging topic, especially in today’s divided environment. This discussion is meant to be an open forum whereby all can share thoughts feelings and fears in order to grow and edify the Kingdom of God and Christ’s Church. Please feel free to speak openly and freely, with respect to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Praying to Overcome the Racial Divide

It is clear that Jesus intended for us to be one across racial lines: he came for the Jews and the Greeks. Jesus said we must be born again and Paul wrote that we should:

“put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” (Col 3:10-11)

Do you know that you have a new self?Does it sometimes fight with the old one?

How have you been hurt by folks of other races?

How is that similar or different than when you are hurt by people of your own race?

How have you hurt others of a different race?

How does Jesus’ command to forgive inform, or not inform, your treatment of people different than you?

Has racial fear ever overcome your faith?

How about overcoming the power of the church in your experience?

How has the Lord’s command to “be not afraid” informed, or not informed, your relations with those of other races?

All of our natural markers of identity fall short of telling us who we are:only our creator, the Word of God, Jesus can truly define us. How can we at His Church Anglican work to overcome the alienation between races in our city?

Jesus loves you!

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:9-11